


Soulmate Pain AU

by witchbreaker



Series: Dreaming of Roads Unwalked Snippets [5]
Category: Dreaming of Sunshine, Naruto
Genre: AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 02:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9578504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchbreaker/pseuds/witchbreaker
Summary: In a world where soulmates feel each other's pain, Shikako and Gaara's lives are changed forever or at least a little.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, so Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen has a pretty vibrant fandom and I've been writing AUs for it in the forum for years. I've decided to start posting the AUs to my AO3 account so that I can get them all in one place and update whenever I feel like it without disturbing the flow of the threads.
> 
> This AU is a version of the Soulmate!AU. You can find the beginning of it in the We're All Just Dreaming of Sunshine forum, Soulmark Fic and Discussion Thread, post #339 aka page 12. There are other authors who have written in it to so please check out the thread if you want to see more.

The first time that Gaara meets Shikako, he barely registers her existence. He is much more focused on Kankuro who is risking their place in the Chunin Exams and thus Gaara's place in the Invasion. Shikako is a blip. Possibly someone to kill later. It doesn't even cross his mind that she might be his soulmate. Gaara doesn't want to meet his soulmate. Doesn't want to meet the one that causes him pain on a regular basis. He goes back and forth on whether or not he would kill them if they met. Part of him wants to to end it, part of him is terrified what it would feel like if they died.

_Shikako assumes her soulmate is dead. The sudden forehead pain when she was four combined with nothing, not even a paper cut, since then pretty much confirm it. It's a shock when she feels Lee's kick connect with Gaara's head. The only saving grace is that everyone is too focused on the match to notice her flinch. From there it's easy to brace herself for the next ones because the pain isn't that bad. Easy because she can't let anyone know. How would Sasuke fight Gaara to his fullest if he knew? How would Naruto? No, best to keep it hidden. Otherwise her teammates, so much more important than her soulmate, would die._

Gaara figures out that Shikako is his soulmate when he and his siblings intervene in their ambush mission gone terribly wrong. He watches Kankuro check Shikako's hand and realizes the damage inflicted on it is the same kind that he is feeling through his own. Gaara is not the same boy that wanted to kill his soulmate but he doesn't know what to do. He wants to talk with her but clearly she needs medical attention. Once back in Konoha, the Leaf Ninja are hurried away while Gaara reports to Tsunade what they witnessed of the battle and hand over the prisoner.

As he waits for Shikako to wake up, he turns over the idea of being her soulmate. There are few people that Gaara holds in esteem and Shikako is one of them. He does not mind being her soulmate, not after witnessing her strength, her intelligence, her kindness. Speaking of kindness, she actually seeks him out when she is awake. Gaara is standing on the roof of the hospital when she maneuvers herself to his side. He decides to speak first.

"I know." Shikako startles at that. He sees her anxiety rising. Gaara raises his hand. "It still aches."

"Oh." Shikako calms at that. Gaara is not foolish enough to think that Shikako didn't already know their connection. "Well, um..."

This was clearly not the conversation that she had expected to have but Shikako talks all the same. About how she doesn't believe in the 'one and only' part of the soulmate or that they are destined to be together and it's really, very, confusing because Gaara has never thought about Shikako that way but is quickly becoming concerned that she wants nothing to do with him. He has tried to raze her home to the ground, tried to kill her and her loved ones, and he's beginning to suspect that she spared his life because she didn't want to feel the pain of his death. Those dark thoughts tug at him like Shukaku's whispers do but he fights them.

"Can we be friends?" He interrupts. She blinks at him.

"Of course." She says like it was never in question. "You are my friend."

Relief floods him. He seems to have thrown her for a loop again but she nods and then informs him about Akatsuki. It is an important bit of information that somehow doesn't matter as much to Gaara as the knowledge that Shikako considers him a friend.

_Getting the whole soulmate thing out of the way was nice though Shikako thinks that she and Gaara were having two different conversations during it. Either way, it all worked out. She doesn't get to see him often, letters are out of the question, but he's always there when she shows up in Suna and always willing to help where he can. They keep it from everyone else out of necessity. People know they have soulmates, they just don't know who and she prefers it that way._

Gaara informs his siblings who his soulmate is when he goes down to his knees abruptly in the Gelel Mines.

"Shikako." He rasps out as he can feel something pierce his chest. It is probably not the best way to inform them but he isn't thinking about that right now. Now, he is experiencing the knowledge the Shikako is dying. Rapidly. The fact is combined with panic. No, she can't go. Then Gelel breaks free of it's bindings and almost takes Shikako in a very different way. Gaara tries to reach out to her. Tries to use the string linking them to pull her away from the chakra-god but it is not enough. It is only by Shikako's own will that she frees herself and returns to them.

Gaara has never wished to hold someone as much as he wanted to hold Shikako after that was over. But her brother was there first and there was still an army to deal with. He suggests the Leaf Genin come with them to Suna for treatment and Shikamaru glares at him with such anger that Temari immediately nixes the idea before a fight can break out. Gaara doesn't push because Tsunade is the best medic-nin alive. When the Leaf Team is out of sight, Kankuro turns on Gaara and pokes him in the chest.

"Since when have you known that Sparky was your soulmate?" He demands. Gaara shrugs.

"Last month."

"And you didn't think to mention this to us?" Now it's Temari who is annoyed.

"It didn't come up." Both his siblings are glaring at him. Gaara would be pleased that they felt safe enough to express such emotions at him if he didn't find this conversation annoying. No one had asked and Gaara certainly isn't going to proclaim it to the world. They are ninja and he's not going to put a target on Shikako's back by letting people know she is his soulmate. He won't risk her like that. She gets into enough trouble as it is.


End file.
